Column for Jan. 11, 2007

Today, the newspaper published the wrong column. They published the column I had written for next week in this week's paper. Ergo, part 3 of "If Troy ruled the world" may not appear at all or will be published out of order. Sorry, but it is a bit beyond my control.

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Not much changed with the recent change

There have been a lot of promises about bi-partisanship on the part of Democrats that have taken over Congress. That sure has gone the way of the dodo in a hurry. It is not as if I expected the short lived rhetoric after it was spewed, anyway. I don't really think that anyone with at least half of a brain did.

Already, we have seen letters to the President of the United States from Democrat leaders condemning his leadership and the plan for putting more troops into Iraq. Just recently, Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House, has been talking about cutting funding to the military and the war effort. Personally, I believe that Nancy Pelosi becoming the Speaker of the House is proof positive that Frodo failed in his quest to destroy the ring in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Let me state up front that I am not a huge supporter of the war in Iraq. My primary opposition is that there was no Declaration of War, as required in our Constitution. However, I saw the end of Saddam Hussein's reign over Iraq as a good thing.

The truth of the matter is that we lost more soldiers in a week in World War II than we have lost in four years in Iraq. Though I hate that we have lost any soldiers at all, I hardly believe that now is the time to debate the merits of our having invaded and occupying Iraq.

I find it ironic that many of the men and women in Congress who at one time declared that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq now complain about their own votes to support military action there. John Edwards is chief among them. The pretty boy who made his millions as a blood sucking trial lawyer, had one of the worst attendance records in the Senate, and spent more time in Iowa and New Hampshire than he did in either D.C. or North Carolina, has expressed his lament about his previous war support.

Many of the same Democrats who have nothing but venom for the present executive administration actually had nice words for a dead Republican. They spoke nice things about a "Heinz 57", i.e., a rather bland President who only lasted two and a half years in office.

Gerald Ford lived to the ripe, old age of 93. Though not considered a particularly effective President according to all I have read, and his term of office ended thirty years ago, his life was still greatly honored. Compare that to the death of Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, who was hanged by his own countrymen. He was a hated despot who was insolent to the end. He was overthrown rather than voted out of office. People rejoiced at his death and he is only honored by his deluded followers.

I believe that Shakespeare wrote in his play "Julius Caesar", "The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred in their bones." Perhaps Gerald Ford will not be remembered for a tremendous amount of good. However, he is still honored. Hussein, however, will be remembered for his evil.

As many of you who read my column and internet writings know, I am not a fan of either George Bush. However, I have the ability to be fair and objective about things that are right and wrong. I call it both ways. I even salute Democrats when they do the right thing. As much as I hate to admit it, there have been a few topics about which they have been correct. I mostly disagree with our own Congressman, Bob Etheridge. At least when I saw that he had a proper vote on an important topic, I gave him kudos for it. That does not happen often, but it does happen.

Will we see any objectivity when it comes to real time politics from either party? Probably not, especially from the Democrats. As to the hatred for George W. Bush, the only time the Democrats may say anything positive about him is at his funeral. Time will tell, and hopefully I will be alive then to hear it.